Matt Flores: Could familiar name spur upset in Senate primary race?

He’s considered a long shot, but don’t be totally surprised if Gene Kelly, an 80-year-old retired Air Force lawyer from Universal City, upsets Barbara Radnofsky for the Democratic Party nomination for a U.S. Senate seat.

Kelly, who has run for political office seven times and lost, managed to get his party’s nomination in 2000 for the Senate seat held by Kay Bailey Hutchison.

He didn’t campaign, spend money or attend political functions, but by sharing a name with the late Hollywood actor and dancer, Kelly managed that year to upset Charles Gandy, a former state representative with a $50,000 campaign fund and the support of the state Democratic party.

In fact, Kelly handily defeated Gandy — by nearly a 3-2 margin in the primary — before losing by a 2-1 margin in the general election to Hutchison. Still, he managed to garner more than 2 million votes statewide in the general election.

Radnofsky, a Houston attorney who campaigned across the state before last month’s primary and who has considerable support in her bid for the party’s nomination, appears to be the favorite. But in a runoff with a markedly low turnout — election experts in Bexar County predict a little over 1 percent of the electorate will cast ballots in the runoff — virtually anyone can win a tight race.

But even if he were to pull the upset, Kelly would have an insurmountable task of unseating Hutchison, one of the GOP’s strongest candidates ever and whose war chest is roughly $7.8 million, in the November election.